PHOENIX – A plan to revitalize the U.S. economy put forward by
liberal groups would create jobs in Arizona and help the poor move
to the middle class, a Democratic state lawmaker said
Wednesday.

“The American dream is for any American, no matter where they
start in life, to be able to accomplish their full goals,” said
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix.

Gallego and state Reps. Anna Tovar, D-Tolleson, and Tom Chabin,
D-Flagstaff, held a news conference to endorse the http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/">Contract for the American
Dream. National groups including MoveOn.org, Campaign For
America’s Future, Planned Parenthood and Progressive Democrats of
America developed the plan.

Its 10 points calls for, among other steps, spending on
infrastructure such as roads and high-speed Internet, creating
energy jobs, providing Medicare for all and improving public
education. It also pushes for increasing taxes on the rich and
ending the wars abroad.

Joining the lawmakers, Monica Sandschafer, executive director of
the community organization Living United for Change in Arizona,
called the proposal a summation of suggestions from more than
130,000 Americans online and in their communities to save the
American dream.

Gallego said there has been an assault on the basic tenets of
the American dream in the last two years.

“It’s now time for us to reinvest in that dream,” he said.

He said the Arizona’s eroding infrastructure and cuts in school
funding hinder people from achieving the dream.

A first-generation American of Mexican decent, Gallego said he
escaped from poverty to the middle class because of the
opportunities this country offered him, including a good public
school education.

“Everyone should have that opportunity,” he said.

But Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, called the plan a joke
and a far-left wish-list.

“This is so unaffordable in terms of spending, so repressive in
terms of upper-middle class taxation and so irresponsible in terms
of foreign policy,” he said.

Kavanagh said the American dream has become harder to achieve
because government is spending more money on pet projects.

“We have plenty of opportunities, and the best way to make good
jobs available to all American children is to get government off
employers’ backs,” Kavanagh said.

State Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa said the Contract for the
American Dream is out of touch with what Arizonans want.

“Three of those steps are tax increases, and it would be a
disaster to raise taxes in this fragile economy that’s struggling
to recover,” he said.

However, Carol Boone, council organizer with the South Phoenix
MoveOn Coalition Council, an organization that encourages
grassroots involvement in politics, said the plan would benefit
Arizona.

“They are thousands of Arizonans who are unemployed. They need
jobs and infrastructure,” she said.

She said ending the wars and returning the troops home, as well
as taxing the rich, would provide some of the funding to re-start
the economy.